Transcript Influence and Persuasion - HSB 4MI Challenge and Change

Influence and
Persuasion
The Psychology of Social
and Individual Behaviour
Change
Social Change: Psychology
• Psychologists focus on changing an
individual’s thinking
– broad social change can flow out of this
• 3 methods of social change:
– behaviour modification
– modelling theory
– social persuasion
Behaviour Modification
• Process by which behaviour is changed
due to experiences and changes in one’s
environment
Ivan Pavlov, 1849-1936
B. F. Skinner, 1904-1990
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Albert Bandura
• Bandura concluded that learning
is largely a modeling experience
• When humans observe behaviour
– either acceptable or
unacceptable – they are more
likely to practice it
• Children learn through the
experiences of others
• Question - What does this
mean to us?
Conditioning in Advertising
• Commercials tap into natural
emotional responses in the brain
– connect product to those reactions
• Different techniques:
–
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–
–
music, jingles
sexual images
heart strings
celebrity
A hamburger advertisement!
What factors are being linked
or associated?
Another example:
http://www.clubstellaartois.ca/en/legere?x=75&y=26
• Ad campaigns attempt to give the product
an “image” or “identity”
– animate an inanimate object
Promise to match the
product’s identity with
the purchaser’s.
• See all types everyday in society
• All shape our behaviour, effect broader
social change
• Above and other tactics used especially by
ADVERTISERS!
• Try to shape:
– buying patterns
– thinking patterns
– social trends
• Largely based on the social psychology
work of Robert Cialdini
– Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
– Influence: Science and Practice
Cialdini
outlines 6
“weapons of
influence” used
by marketers to
elicit automatic
responses.
• Cialdini argues we use mental shortcuts
– automatic responses, assumptions in given
situations
• usually help us; also make us vulnerable
A few simple examples:
• value  more expensive = better quality
– e.g. price increase vs. discount
• contrast  if the 2nd item in a list
is different from the first, see it
as more different than it is
– e.g. clothing sales
Weapon 1: Reciprocation
• Rooted in the social belief that we
should repay in kind what others do for
us
e.g. The “kind favour” study
– experimenter, subject, confederate
– confederate gets subject a Coke
– later asks subject to buy raffle tickets
subjects done a favour buy more
and spend more
Also used in negotiations and
requests:
– e.g. “Happy Days” and TV
censors
– e.g. counselling juvenile
delinquents?
Common uses
Come across this in marketing
– free sample of products
– charities that mail out a “gift”
Hard to counter: obligation to the cycle
Redefine: concession or “compliance
trick”?
Weapon 2:
Commitment and Consistency
Created by 2 general characteristics:
• Inner desire to meet commitments
• Dislike appearing inconsistent
Both drive us to become attached to
something once we’ve made a commitment
to it
Be a safe
driver
– e.g. placing bets
– e.g. beach “theft” study
– e.g. driver safety sign request
DRIVE
CAREFULLY
Common uses
• Salesperson gets customers to commit
– E.g. energy sales and “cooling off” periods
• sales drop as customers change mind
• have customers fill out own forms
• Initiation rites
– hard to get in = high commitment once in
• e.g. fraternities and sororities, hazing
Weapon 3: Liking
Basic behavioural characteristics:
– more likely to buy from those we like
– like those who are similar to us
Common uses
 company has people sell product to family,
friends; sell in homes
Supporting studies 
• “lost” wallet study
• Subjects find a lost wallet (planted)
– has money, cheque, ID, note
• Finder is similar to note writer = 70 % return it
• Finder is dissimilar to note writer = 33 % return it
Other Common uses
• Sales people finding “connections”
Weapon 4: Social Proof
Human behaviour:
“we view a behaviour as more correct
in a given situation to the degree that
we see others performing it”
Again, usually a helpful strategy, but makes us
vulnerable
– e.g. canned laughter effect
Common uses:
• “salting” tip jars
• religious events: have ‘plants’ in
audience come forward
• “largest selling!”; “rated #1”; “fastest growing”;
“4 out of 5 dentists…”
• Use of “average people” in ads
– relate to them (and product)
– effect of similarity
Remember Albert Bandura? Children learn
through …
• uses principle to cure children of dog
phobia:
– child watches other children playing with dogs
– works if watching on TV
– works better if more children play with dog
• social proof effect!
Weapon 5: Authority
In general, we obey those in authority.
e.g. Stanley Milgram study
Also more likely to obey those
we trust.
Common uses:
• advertisers portray trustworthy
experts (often actors)
– e.g. Sanka ad
• Need to ask if person is really an authority
– e.g. street orders study
• Advertisers also try to fake “truthfulness” to
boost authority, credibility
– “Joslin Insurance is the place you’re going to hate
… less”
– “Avis: we’re number 2, but we try harder”
– Buckley’s!
“Tastes awful,
but it works!”
Weapon 6: Scarcity
Human thought:
“Opportunities seem more valuable when
their availability is limited”
e.g. rare coins, sports cards
Supporting study  2 year old and toys
Common uses:
• “warnings” in ads
– “supply is limited!”
– “call in the next 20 minutes!”
– “after, November, they’re gone!”
• Dade County, Florida phosphate detergent ban,
1971
– public smuggling
– changed attitude towards detergent
with phosphates
• “poured better, gentler, better in cold water”
• Real estate: “goosing them off the fence”
– tell customers of another “potential buyer”
• Used car salesperson
– “double-booking” technique
Your (optional) assignment:
• Find one ad: print, TV, radio, Internet
– bring it in if possible
• Analyze how the ad is working, its
techniques
– try to incorporate concepts we’ve studied
– can include others as well
• Work on your own or with a partner
• DUE DATE: